User Reviews

I am really confounded as to where all of these Atwater Block beers in my backlog came from. If someone provided them to me and would like to be recognized, just let me know. All I can figure is that either Tone77 brought them by at one point or I bought them on a Pinocchio's run.

From the bottle: "Beer Is Good"; "Enjoy Responsibly"; "Malt Beverage Brewed With Lemon".

I know that previous reviewers did not enjoy their bottles, but I remain hopeful. I have taken to calling myself, among other things, The Will Rodgers of Beer since I have never met a beer that I did not like at some level, even if it was simply as an alcohol delivery system.

I have never been to Traverse City, but I remember expediting parts on order from a company headquartered there while attached to the Self-Defense Test Ship (SDTS) in Port Hueneme, CA while my Michigan-expat supervisor reminisced with the fellow to whom I was talking. A couple of years later, while on my last tour of duty on Diego Garcia, I ordered cherry preserves, cherry butter and cherry spread from a place in Traverse City. Man, the taste lingers with me in my dreams! Let us hope that this comes close ...

My pour netted better than two fingers of foamy, fizzy tawny head with moderate retention. Color was a deep amber with NE-quality clarity, both unusual for a wheat beer. Nose had a faint scent of cherries and I girded myself for a letdown. Mouthfeel was thin and watery and the cherry taste/tartness just seemed to be lacking in the mouth.Finish was equally uninspired and I found myself wishing for some of those cherry preserves. My apologies to the brewery, but I hope that your hometown Tigers fare better in the 2012 World Series than your beers have in my estimation.

Pours a hazy copper color with a white head that dissipates rather quickly, leaving no lacing on the glass. The aroma, especially for being a "cherry wheat" beer, is very hard to pick up on. Some cherries, wheat, sweet malt, and a touch of floral hops come out, but you have to REALLY sit there and concentrate and smell. It's far too weak. The taste isn't much better. Tart cherries up front, much like cherry "juice" rather than cherry "beer" - very soft and bland. The wheat flavor is strong, almost overpowering much of the cherry taste. The beer left a weird, chalky feeling in my mouth afterwards. Medium body, medium carbonation.

Overall, a mediocre beer at best. Bland and boring, and the aromas/flavors that ARE there, aren't very good. Steer clear of this one.

Smell: A good deal of sour/tart scent from the cherries, and a touch of sweetness from the malt.

Taste/Mouthfeel: Beer is medium-bodied, with minimal carbonation. Very bitter, a good deal of sourness. There are cherries, yes, but they are not in season. Almost like a wine, there's not a great deal of consistency to the maltiness.

Overall: Wouldn't recommend this to anyone. Samuel Adams has a much better offering in this category. Now, if the ABV were about double what it is, they might have something here...LoL

I picked up a six-pack of Atwater's Traverse City Cherry Wheat for $9 today at Busch'sl. I noticed the label and though I would give it a try on this 97 degree day, so we'll see. It was notched May '12.

A- I drank it from the bottle. So, I guess my review might be a bit lacking.

S- It has a sweet nose to it with a bit of hops and maybe a dash of caramel. So far I am not overwhelmed with the notion of cherries. Although, I guess if it did then it probably wouldn't be a very good beer (it would be a cordial/wine).

T- The taste seems boring and bland. It starts off with a very faint ancestor of cherries. As the beer goes in the flavor of cherry is instantly quelled with wheat beer. In the end it leaves the mouth dry and ready for another drink.

M- Smooth, crisp, and dry.

I'm not sure what I was expecting but I wasn't impressed with this beer. I thought it was a waste of two dollars. I say two dollars because I could have purchased an 'average' six-pack of wheat beer for $7 that would have pleased me better then this.

A. Pours out a copper color with a whitehead that quickly disappears leaving some fine lacing and retention.
S. The aroma consists of cherry juice and wheat along with some sweet malts. Nothing really stands out.
T. The taste starts out with cherry juice that reminds me of a cherry softdrink followed by some wheat and finishes off with some tart cherries and bread.
M. The mouthfeel is pretty smooth and is rather easy drinking.
O. Not a bad beer, but not a good beer either. When it comes to a cherry wheat beer better off with Sam Adams cherry wheat than this one.

I picked up a bottle of Atwater's Traverse City Cherry Wheat for $1.69 today at The Lager Mill. This is a new brew for Atwater, saw it at the store today and thought I should give it a try, so lets see how it goes. It was notched April 2012. Poured from a brown 12oz bottle into a tulip.

A- The label is pretty typical for Atwater, but I like the color and the cherry tree by the Grand Traverse Bay, it's above average for them. It poured a slightly brown copper color that took on a nice copper/amber color when held to the light and it had two fingers worth of head that died down to a thin ring that left some spotty lacing. The beer doesn't look too bad.

S- The aroma is little lighter then I expected. The first thing that I pick up are the cherries which impart a cherry juice aroma, the cherries aren't the intense and don't smell artificial. After that comes some basic wheat and malt aromas that were pretty light and imparted a light wheaty and slightly malty aroma with a medium amount of sweetness. The aroma was a little bland, I would say it's average at best.

T- The taste seems to be just about as bland as the aroma was. It starts off with some cherries that don't stick out nearly as much as I would like them to and they impart a light cherry juice flavor that is slightly tart, GRPunk is right it does taste similar to those Cherry Capri Suns. After that comes some wheat and malts that have a lower amount of sweetness and impart a light wheat flavor along with a light amount of toasted bread and cracker flavors. The finish is a little tart with a light amount of bitterness and a cracker like aftertaste with a very light amount of cherries. The flavor wasn't impressive, the wheat and cherry flavors were just too light and that made the flavor boring and a pretty bland.

M- Somewhat smooth, crisp, dry, on the medium side of being light bodied and it had a slightly fizzy medium amount of carbonation. Not that bad, the fizzy carbonation works somehow.

Overall I wasn't impressed with this beer and I thought it was a pretty lackluster attempt at a Cherry Wheat Beer, the flavors and aromas were just too muted which made this beer come up short in the realm of Cherry Wheat beers. It didn't have good drinkability, the tartness didn't make it that smooth, and the bland flavors couldn't hold my attention, one is enough for me, no need for another. What I liked most about this beer was the appearance and the mouthfeel they weren't that bad and seemed on par for the style. What I liked least about his beer was the aroma and taste, they were both pretty bland and the great flavors and aromas that should have stuck out, didn't. I wouldn't buy this beer again, I would choose Sam Adams Cherry Wheat over this beer and I don't even like that beer that much, I wouldn't recommend this beer. Atwater can be hit or miss and in my book this was a miss, it was bland and it just missed the mark on what a good Cherry Wheat should be like, I won't be returning to this beer, better luck next time guys.

A- A normal pour created a 1-finger, white head with a light, pinkish hue. A yeast swirl added a nice cloudiness to the gold body. The body is actually pretty complex. It was nearly clear at the bottom edges, golden in the middle, and nearly brown where the suspended yeast floated near the head. Foam sustained at 1/2 finger and left nice sticky rings on the glass.

T- Definite cherry flavor. Sweet up front with a tart finish. More Capri Sun qualities (though I haven't had one in years). Dry finish. Malts are secondary and Ritz cracker-like. Warmth brings out more malt.